SamB wrote:"Throw Them All Out," by Peter Schweizer. Make sure your toilet works before attempting this short book. You will be heaving a lot. It documents the insider stock tips, land deals, and cronyism in government. If you do not believe in passive investing, this book is for you. It is a road map for successful active investing.

How anyone can have faith in our government after reading that book is beyond me. Downright criminal.

SamB wrote:"Throw Them All Out," by Peter Schweizer. Make sure your toilet works before attempting this short book. You will be heaving a lot. It documents the insider stock tips, land deals, and cronyism in government. If you do not believe in passive investing, this book is for you. It is a road map for successful active investing.

How anyone can have faith in our government after reading that book is beyond me. Downright criminal.

Just finished A Random Walk Down Wall Street, 9e and The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing. Thanks for all the cool-aid. Started Common Sense on Mutual Funds, Kindle edition. Looking for something more specifically on asset allocation, perhaps Mr. Ferri's All About Asset Allocation.

Also trying to finish Dance With Dragons. I'm starting to regret starting RR Martin's series as each book gets longer and more filled with characters -- I believe the plot line hasn't moved significantly in the last 300 pages. Oh well, I guess I can just abandon it and read a good biography instead -- I think I have John Adams idling on my Kindle.

Hey guys, glad to see this thread is back alive. I am currently reading: The Billionaires vinegar. It has been brilliant thus far. Definitely and interesting read for people into wine or the history of wine. I am also working on, A war like no other, by Victor Davis Hanson it is about the Greek and athenian wars in the 400 bcs.

david99 wrote:I just finished reading Overdiagnosed Making People Sick In The Pursuit of Health by Dr. H. Gilbert Welch.
Dr. Welch says that due to several factors such as fear of lawsuits, highly sensitive machines that can pick up the smallest abnormality, and profits made from screenings that no abnormality is overlooked. The result is that people are sometimes given medications or surgery when they may not need it. I was recently talking to a friend who is a physician and he says that he does practice defensive medicine because of fear of lawsuits.

Oh I'll have to read this one. The risks of 'false positives' are totally underappreciated by the public and also by many doctors. Never, ever get the total body MRI if you are feeling well and just doing it for screening purposes! Thanks for the heads up.

'It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so!' Mark Twain

I have just about finished reading From Sea to Shining Sea by James Alexander Thom. It is an epic 896 page novel that includes the Lewis & Clark expedition, the Revolutionary War, and the many other historical milestones that shaped our Western civilization. It was rated 4.16 out of 5 from 453 ratings on goodreads. A lot of people (including me) are sad when the book comes to an end because they wish the story would keep going. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3171 ... hining_Sea

*Reminder for those ordering books from Amazon... use the link on this site when ordering.*

If you havent read these Jack Reacher novels yet I highly suggest you start. I have been able to get all of them, so far, from the library and they are excellent books imo. They do not need to be read in any order but if you want to read them in the order they were released, check out this link:http://www.leechild.com/faqcontact.php#order

If you havent read these Jack Reacher novels yet I highly suggest you start. I have been able to get all of them, so far, from the library and they are excellent books imo. They do not need to be read in any order but if you want to read them in the order they were released, check out this link:http://www.leechild.com/faqcontact.php#order

I have a question for any Bogleheads living in the UK who've read any of Elizabeth George's mysteries. I'm about 3/4 through Believing the Lie. She's one of my wife's and my favorite writers. She an American who lives in--the dust jacket says Washington State, I think it used to be California?, and her novels mostly deal with Inspector Lynley and take place in England.

She seems to be very careful about using British terminology, language, etc. ("carrier bag" for US-ian "shopping bag," "Zimmer frame" for US-ian "walker") and an American has a sense of being immersed in a British environment.

So, I'm curious: does it seem convincing to a Brit? Do you basically just not notice the milieu? Or does it all seem comically not-quite-right, exaggerated, distorted, like Dick van Dyke's accent in Mary Poppins?

I recently read Outliers, Blink, and The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, who uses factual stories to support interesting ideas. In Tipping Point, the lead story is how Hush Puppies reemerged as a world-wide fad. In outliers, the point is that genius and/or great talent is not necessary or sufficient for outstanding achievement; the key is "enough" smarts or talent and great (often extraordinary) effort. In Blink, the lead is how some experts recognized almost at a glance that a Kouros (statue) the Getty Museum had spend months and great expense investigating before purchasing for $10 million was actually a fake. Other stories in each book are equally interesting, e.g., in Blink, how experience and training enabled a police officer to spare the life of an armed teenager by giving the boy another split second to drop his gun. Great Stuff.

The following from Blink's Afterword:

"In my first book, The Tipping Point, I tried to lay out a plan of action for people interested in creating social change . . . The real lesson of Blink: Once we know how the mind works, and about the strengths and weaknesses of human judgment, it is our responsibility to act."

The End of Illness - David Agus
I am about a third of the way through this book and hate it. I am writing my review now because I don't think I can finish this book.
- The author is a big proponent of statins. Recommends that every one about the age of 40 should be on a statin. Comes across as a advert for Lipitor and Crestor.
- Does not ever mention opposite viewpoints. A large number of doctors believe that the lipid hypothesis is wrong.
- Uses relative risk reduction metrics to push treatment options, instead of absolute risk reduction metrics. Whenever someone uses relative risk I know they are trying to hide something.
- Completely ignores type II errors in medicine.

I'm a book addict so reading this thread is not good for me.
I've also gotten great book tips from the Jon Stewart show, nothing however is ever lightweight there, can't speed through those books.
Right now I have about 12 library books in various states of completion. Triaged depending on when they are due and whether they can be renewed.
Had to return Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow after 70 pages, new book, unrenewable. Try again later.

Recent reads:
When the Drummers Were Women by Redmond
History of women and percussion drumming from ancient times. Drumming as storytelling, community celebration and ritual preservation.
I became interested in this after watching a local drum circle, held every Saturday night at sunset on the beach. Non-commercial simple fun.

Discovery of France by Robb
Really interesting about "France" as not one homogenous country, rather many, many small communes and villages which until very recently did not even share the common French language. "Departments" were a post-Revolution invention to organize an unconnected country.

A Private Madness by Hively
Elinor Wylie, 1920's author with a complicated personal life.

The Calusa and their Legacy by MacMahon and Marquardt
I live in the SW Florida area that Calusa natives did before they "disappeared" in the 18th century. Because most materials here in South Florida do not last long in local humidity we know little about natives who lived here pre-historically. They built canals, had extensive trading routes and were artists. They resisted European intrusion for 200 years but eventually lost that war and their civilization too. It is conjectured that remainders of the Calusa people fled to Cuba.

The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine by Bronsky
Fun, fun novel with a main character that makes you laugh out loud at her outrageousness. Fun sociopath? Tartar saucy, she is the hottest dish (in her own mind). Reading this one first because it's unrenewable from library and the most fun.

What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite by DiSalvo
This is no "Thinking, Fasy and Slow" and I'll be returning it not read entirely. Good ideas but not written in an appealing way (Malcolm Gladwell does it so much better).

There are another 8 or so books lying around but these are the most interesting at the moment.
Libraries are wonderful places. So many books, so little time.
Some books I buy used to take on our long summer driving vacation. Less internet and TV, more time to absorb new ideas.

As a result of a discussion in another thread (below) I'm reading Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It by Gary Taubes. My wife and I have been successful at losing and controlling our weight through the principles of the South Beach Diet. Taubes' book (I've read about 2/3 of it thus far) seems to dovetail well and add to my understanding of why it works for us and how we can do better.

Just finished Coming Apart by Charles Murray, thought it was interesting and thought provoking. Basically about how US culture has declined, though less about how or why. Amazon description:

In Coming Apart, Charles Murray explores the formation of American classes that are different in kind from anything we have ever known, focusing on whites as a way of driving home the fact that the trends he describes do not break along lines of race or ethnicity.

Drawing on five decades of statistics and research, Coming Apart demonstrates that a new upper class and a new lower class have diverged so far in core behaviors and values that they barely recognize their underlying American kinship—divergence that has nothing to do with income inequality and that has grown during good economic times and bad.

The top and bottom of white America increasingly live in different cultures, Murray argues, with the powerful upper class living in enclaves surrounded by their own kind, ignorant about life in mainstream America, and the lower class suffering from erosions of family and community life that strike at the heart of the pursuit of happiness. That divergence puts the success of the American project at risk.

The evidence in Coming Apart is about white America. Its message is about all of America.

A poster in a previous WBAUCR IV thread suggested Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander's series after finishing the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. Excellent Suggestion! These books have that Swedish feel with similar characters between Kurt W. and Mikael B. I read The Man who Smiled and Faceless Killers and both were great! Another similarity between all characters in both books is the amount of coffee they drink. Is that true with the Swedes??

Another book I finished recently was The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson. It was about an American ambassador to Germany and his family during the 1930's as Hitler was rising to power. I had heard a lot about it and maybe had too high expectations. Nice informative read but was left expecting more suspense.

Keep up suggestions. These threads are where I start my search at the library!!

Armadillo by William Boyd. A fantastic writer. Hope to read most of his stuff. Never heard of him until I looked up the author of "Any Human Heart" a PBS mini-series with one of my favorite actors, Matthew MacFayden. The write is quite prolific.

"Outliers," by Malcolm Gladwell. Non fiction about what makes exceptional people exceptional. Necessary and sufficient condition. Easy reading. Posits that one needs 10,000 hours experience to be good at something, and that our cultural heritage has a great influence on who we are. By these standards I should be an expert attorney, after watching 10,000 hours of Perry Mason reruns.

I am still reading The Warburgs by Ron Chernow. (See post, above.) It's long – over seven hundred pages of text - but very engrossing. I am continually flipping back and forth between the text and the excellent genealogical charts in front and the bibliography, end notes, and the less-than-satisfactory index in back.

Very readable compilation of the authors blogs posts of 10+ years writing on the topic. If you think there are corporate tax loop holes you haven't seen nothing compared to movie making.

Box office income isn't "profitable" no matter how much is made. It's all spoken for in distribution fees and pecentages to everyone else. The actors make their money on the 20% cut on DVD and other digital sales which are 2x of box office sales.